ALIVE
WOLFMOON: An uncharacteristically commercial effort from Swamp Dogg's early 70s production run, this is fast ball right down the pop/soul middle that would have been hit out of the park if his releasing company wasn't headed down the tubes at the time. Veering from originals to "Proud Mary", Moon and Dogg take it to church, b ut they're smoking ciggys out back during the service. Excellent material to help fuel a 70s soul revival, this is one of those best albums you never heard kind of record. Solid stuff that goes the distance with ease.

SANDRA PHILLIPS/Too Many People in One Bed: Released just before the label it was on tanked, legend has it only some promo copies escaped before it was all over. Too bad. Utterly in the pocket southern soul that could have been a trend setter given the proper send off. Sounding very much like a lost Muscle Shoals classic, this is pissed off middle aged black woman soul at the top of the game. Well sourced from the land beyond Aretha, this is no time piece even if it speaks to an era. Killer stuff that shows, as a producer, Swamp Dogg really was a man for all seasons. Simply killer stuff.

BAR NONE
SPEED THE PLOUGH/The Plough and the Stars: It was 30 years ago and punks were looking for something different to do. Celtic was big. Jam band was on the horizon. Crafty kids noted ISB, Pentangle and others were jam bands anyway--and so the process began. From Joisey they came, sounding more like a Fairport splinter band than Snooki, they created a history that's well noted here through various incarnations and incantations. The music stands up as delightfully timeless and helped set the standard for what would become 3A before the machine got it's hands on the format. Solid stuff for the left leaning that love acoustic music with bite.

COMEDY CENTRAL
GABRIEL IGLESIAS/Aloha Fluffy: With a lot of hard work under his belt, the video version of this disc of the most widely viewed comedy special of 2013 show his determination to get to the top. Basically family friendly fun, Iglesias is on the money throughout, even when he gets autobiographical finding the humor in his climb to the top. The label breaks their normal stride when putting out two disc packages by making the second disc more audio instead of a video roll off serving up a smoking dose of stand up past and present. The cat is a gasser as he proves over and over on these two discs, as he has in past specials as well, this fluffy man is a riot. You don't even have to be young to get it. Check it out, it's a laugh riot.
185

LOUD RANCH
GEORGE DUCAS/4340: One of contemporary Nashville's most reliable writers comes back to the mic with a country rocker from the Hank Jr side of the ledger. The songs are sharp and crisp, the delivery heartfelt and the asses are kicked properly. Simply a solid, entertaining set that gives you your moneys worth with plenty of bounce to the ounce and fun to boogie the night away with. A winner throughout.

PIRANHA
BOBAN & MARKO MARKOVIC ORCHESTRA/Gipsy Manifesto: Funk comes to the Balkans as the Internet brings electro everywhere and local culture collides with multi culti. Sounding like a Romany James Brown leading a bull fight band, this is one of the craziest mash ups you're going to come across. Sounding like of like Tijuana Brass on speed, this crew delivers a party punch that sounds like it's something like the next century might sound like, on another planet. Utterly wild and utterly wonderful.
2753

YEP ROC
TONY JOE WHITE/Hoodoo: He may not write another "Polk Salad Annie" or "Rainy Night in Georgia", but to pressure to conform isn't there anymore either. Having earned the right to do whatever he sees fit and being pretty much the last man left standing, the swamp fox is just as wily as ever and still knows how to choogle along in his 70s like he did back in the 60s. If you're bummed knowing there's not going to be anything new in the pipeline from JJ Cale or Waylon Jennings and that bunch, White is here to save the day. This down home, white swamp blues is just as much of a gasser as ever. Check it out.

DVD SUPPLEMENT
COMEDY CENTRAL
SOUTH PARK Complete Sixteenth Season: You know, Parker and Stone are 16 years older than when they started this show and their views have changed accordingly. Not only that but it seems the Simpsons were well into backlash at this point as well (unfairly we think---in both cases). Hell, we can't even believe people that call this the anti-Peanuts. We've been re-reading classic Peanuts as an adult and they were a pretty fucked up bunch. And that's why South Park is still great. How can you run out of stories about kids being a fucked up bunch? As the world continues to get weirder and weirder, there's plenty of new source material to keep this show fresh for years to come. So, when you add deleted scenes to the madness that flowed from these 14 episodes, the laugh riot continues. Cartman is still a mass of prejudices that don't get dated, Kyle still gets the short end and the tale goes on. And just to show how timely this gets, the kids adventures in selling gold at store fronts makes it all a bargain at any price. DVDs allow you to watch an entire season in 5 hours which is why I say complete season box sets are the new novels---and the marathons won't fuck up your dvr. It's a stone cold gasser as always. Also available on blu-ray.

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